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denied the nourishment they need to take roots. The HRCP said, “The Supreme
Court judgement was perhaps not unexpected. The removal of the elected
prime minister, especially in a country like Pakistan where democratic traditions
are very weak, is saddening and certainly not a matter for rejoicing. Nobody
can deny the imperatives of legal dispensation, but the implications of the
judgement in a far from stable society and the severe crisis that it seems to
give rise to have perhaps not been taken into consideration. It needs to be
remembered that after repeated spells of dictatorship the state’s capacity to
sustain the democratic system cannot be expected to be very strong. In such
a situation, democratic institutions need to be nourished and helped to grow
through advice and persuasion rather than punitive action that often does more
harm than good.”
The Commission said that “the people have to decide who governs them
and we hope that the environment will not be polluted to the extent that a fair
determination of electoral will becomes impossible.”
July 17: HRCP expressed serious concern at looming dangers for the
democratic dispensation in the country and called upon the political parties to
realise their responsibility to avert threats to democracy. The HRCP Policy
Planning Committee, the highest policy making body of HRCP, urged the political
parties to ensure a smooth transfer of power and to beware of those who
wanted to install a democratic façade without elected representatives and
democracy without the electoral process. HRCP expressed the hope and
expectation that the political parties will realise their responsibility and will not
become party to any scheme to take away the people’s right to elect their
representatives.
August 12: The HRCP said that Pakistan’s survival depended on
strengthening the democratic process so as to remove the tensions and
imbalance in civil and military relations and ensure that all institutions of the
state play their role in the well being of the people within their parameters.
This was the consensus at a consultation organized by HRCP.
The consultation on ‘Civil-military relations and their impact on human
rights’ was attended by politicians from across the political spectrum, former
military officers, representatives of civil society, noted academics and journalists.
The assembly passed the following resolution at the conclusion of the
consultation.
1. Pakistan’s survival lies in strengthening the democratic process and it
cannot flourish without the existence of a strong parliament or an independent
judiciary. The country needs both. However, recent events are disturbing as
the authority of the parliament has been undermined and its lawmaking power
challenged. All laws that are in contravention of fundamental rights ought to
be struck down by the courts but they cannot put restrictions on the parliament
to enact laws.
2. An independent judiciary and an efficient system of administration of
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State of Human Rights in 2012